Never Lose Your Sense of Wonder

I made this card for a friend and worship leader at our church. The stamp set is a Phyllis Harris design by Unity Stamp Company. Some time after I had purchased this stamp I purchased a new worship CD by Bethel Church in Redding CA called "You Make Me Brave". This whole CD is a good one but there is one track on the CD that is spontaneous worship and the lyric is "may we never lose our wonder" talking about us not losing the wonder and awe of who God is.

Ever since I heard that song I have wanted to make a card using this stamp to send to my friend. I finally got that done the other day.

I colored the image using my Copic Markers. I used scraps of design paper to make this card. The blue is from American Crafts "The Color of Memories" Collection and the yellow is Authentique "Blissful" Collection.

Have a good one!

3rd Card for Make it a Banner Year Challenge

I'm on a roll! I may not be able to do this every challenge but my goal is to make at least one card a challenge. Cards in Envy's first card challenge of the year theme is "Make it a Banner Year". The challenge is to make a card or cards with at least one banner.

I needed a "thank you" card to send to a friend. The image and sentiment are from Impression Obsession. Once again I used the same papers from the Authentique collection "Original". I have so many scraps because I had designed a 2 page layout for a Make-N-Take at a past Cat's Creations National Scrapbook Day Retreat. To see my blog about that layout go here. Now that I make cards I couldn't bring myself to dispose of the scraps so I have A LOT! I stamped the image with Memento Black Tuxedo. I used Versa Mark on the sentiment and heated embossed it. I added some foam tape for dimension on the banner.

Have a good one!

Making Cards for Needed Occassions

Just so you know that I'm still alive I thought I would post a few cards I have made for some needed occasions.

The first is a card for a baby shower.
I used an older Simple Stories collection for this card.


















I did something very different that I don't usually do and that is the inside of the card. The picture on the left is the inside of the card. I do like how it turned out.

The next card I made was for an anniversary. This is a digital stamp from Stamping Dragons called "True Love". I colored the image with my Copic Markers.

Then for interest I added some glossy accents to the bow on the dress and tie. I used Distress Stickles Picket Fence on the tiara and the boutonniere. I remembered I had some shimmery paint from Stampin Up that I used on the girls dress. This photo shows a little better the use of these products.













The next is a birthday card for Remi whose birthday is Friday.

I also made Remi a Halloween card.

This birthday card was for a friend who is a roper. The design paper is Authentique "Geniune" collection. The image is an Impressive Obscession. The sentiment is from a Stampin Up Collection. On the inside I used a sentiment that I created which said "Have a 'ropin' great day".






I made this Thank You card using Authentique. I have no idea what collection.




Once things slow down I hope to blog a big more.


Have a good one!

My Other Daughter

Now before you jump to conclusions, I am not revealing some deep dark secret. I do not have another biological daughter but I do have some young ladies that I think of as daughters and this one definitely fits the bill!

Leslie, is the daughter of my best friend and mentor. She is 5 years younger than Vanessa. When Vanessa was little she spent as much time with Leslie as she did at home. They are like sisters. I developed a friendship with Leslie when I kept my horses at her parents property North of town. We discovered our mutual love of horses and often rode together and she helped me a lot with caring for mine when I couldn't as they lived about 15 miles from town.

Leslie or "Lezlee" as she prefers to have her name pronounced turns 24 today. In honor of her day I made this card for her.

This image is a Phyllis Harris Design made into a rubber stamp and sold by Unity Stamp Co. I used my Copic Markers to color the image. Leslie's horse is a Buckskin. I tried to color this horse to look like hers. The sentiment I stamped on paper then carefully cut around it and popped with dimensional tape . I used my markers again to color the heart then covered it with glossy accents. I took a strip of some scrap Authentique DP to add to the card.

Happy birthday Leslie! What a blessing you have been to me! May your day be all you hoped and more!

Retreat Results

I went to a scrapbooking retreat almost two weeks ago! I had a fabulous time and actually got quite a bit done. I must say I was pleased with my accomplishment. Cathy had gotten in several new papers and wanted some samples for the store so that was my jump start!

These papers and embellishments are from Reminisce. These are some pics of Doyle and his brother Doren playing golf at Mitchell Resort and RV Park where we have the retreats.

These papers and embellishments are from Reminisce also. These are pics of my niece Addison who is in the Marines. I must admit I "stole" these pics off her facebook to make this layout.

More Reminisce papers and embellishments. When I saw these papers I knew just what pictures I wanted to use! These are some pics I took with my phone camera making faces that I thought worked perfectly!

Easter papers and stickers from Reminisce. These were last years pics of Easter.

Some more Reminisce Easter.

I just love this picture of Kennedy and her friend Bailey having an egg hunt at "Mother's Day Out". I appreciate that Bailey's Mom got this picture! This is also from the Reminisce Easter Collection.

This is Authentique's Easter Collection.

These papers are from Echo Park. Vanessa got these pics for me of Kennedy's first day going back to Mother's Day Out. She calls it school. She looks so grown up here wearing her backpack and carrying her nap mat!

I still managed to take a little adventure while at the park. And was it an adventure! Look what I saw:

Yep....a coyote! Now I had a 75-300mm lens on my camera so he appears closer than he was. I saw him before he saw me. This is when he first noticed me.

This is what he did after he saw me. I was relieved that he ran but was a little unnerved when I saw movement out of the corner of my eye and realized that he had a companion that was closer to me than the other one was! Thankfully they both scurried off in the woods.

You know I'm going to watch the sunset. Loved how the clouds looked.

View over the tank. 

We are so dry. This is a huge tank...the park calls it a lake but it is slowly drying up. See how there are areas of land showing up where there should be water?

Just beautiful!

Have a good one!

Retreat

A week ago this past Thursday I left for my annual fall scrapbook retreat through Cat's Creations held at Mitchell RV Park & Resort. I LOVE this place. It is in the middle of NOWHERE yet not far enough away that I can't come home should I need to. I did have to do that on Friday to feed horses and let dogs out as hubby was on duty at the fire station.

I usually take a week to try to get ready. Deciding what projects I will work on, choosing pictures and papers and what tools I may take. Not this time. I failed at packing for this trip miserably! I finally just started grabbing some things and left a lot at home trying to be more realistic in my expectations of what I would actually get accomplished.

When I get to the retreat I found a new apron waiting on me! I am so proud of it! I know you can't see it all but under my arm are multi-colored paw prints down the right side.
One of the projects I chose to work on is re-decorating Kennedy's letters. When the kids moved they had boxed up Kennedy's letters and hadn't unpacked them until they moved this last time. Unfortunately before the last move the letters were damaged by a water heater that leaked soaking the box that contained the letters. This is what they used to look like. I was so proud of them. I was sad when they got wet.

Here's the revised letters. They go with the colors in the girls room better.

I tried to keep just a little bit of "horsey" theme! The picture doesn't show dimension but I have some on almost every letter.

These are the letters I made for Remi a year ago. I used some of the same papers on Kennedy's. I hope Kennedy's new letters will look good on their wall.








Another project I wanted to get done is make a card for a young couple. It's my really good friend Teresa's daughter. She got married 2 years ago on 11-11-11. I went a step further and created an envelope out of the same paper line (Authentique) using the envelope maker by We R. The image is a Phyllis Harris design by Unity Stamp Company. I was very pleased with the finished product! I had some alpha stickers that came with the paper collection and I used the initial of their last name to seal the envelope.


I did get 15 page layouts completed. I just didn't take any pictures.

One of the many things I love about coming to this retreat is getting outdoors and walking around. I missed getting any sunset pics this time.  Can you believe it?! I know! I'm in shock myself. The best night was Thursday and I missed the window of opportunity. We had cloud cover the rest of the time.

I did however see this guy...or gal...on my way into town Friday morning to feed. He was laying down until I did a u-turn to get pics. When I stopped in front of where he was he started getting up. I was too close for comfort.

Keeping an eye on me!

Friday was a very chilly day and the sunshine was short lived so I didn't take my usual adventure. The weather was better Saturday.

Found this little guy fluttering around. I couldn't catch him with his wings open.

Every time I am here I take a picture of these trees. I just think it is so unusual. It has grown since I first discovered it.

Overall, it was still a good retreat and I am pleased with what I accomplished. It was good to get a way for a few days.

This was taken the night before my retreat. I thought it was cool with the moon and one of the planets shining brightly as the last rays of sunlight fade.

This was the sunset the day I came home from the retreat. I think these guys were glad to see me!

Have a good one!

Cards in Envy "Manly" Challenge

For this challenge I used Cards in Envy sketch#11 posted on their Facebook page.

Here is my card for the Cards in Envy "Manly" Challenge.

The image is a stamp set from Stampin Up called Horse Frontier. The papers are Authentique Genuine Collection.

I made another card this week for a family friend from my childhood. We were neighbors when I was growing up. They lived a mile down the road from us. She had twins, a boy and girl 8 months older than me. They had horses and I learned to ride on their Shetland pony. She had sent me a birthday card this year. It touched me and I wanted her to know how much I appreciated it.

I thought this image was perfect coming from me! The image and sentiment are a stamp set by Phyllis Harris through Unity Stamp Company. The papers are from that same Authentique collection as above. All scraps from another project. I colored with my Copic Markers and cut out part of the image. I matted the sentiment and used foam tape for dimension. I also included a few photos of family and pets just to catch her up a bit on our goings on. I would love to see her face when it arrives!

I took Gracie back to the vet today as she won't quit chewing on her tail. I've bandaged it, sprayed it with "Bitter Yuck" to no avail. I also wanted to make sure she was putting on some weight. I'm trying to feed her twice a day. One time she'll eat good and not another. She seems to be feeling right at home. Two days ago, Doyle found her on our bed!

Kennedy is not really asleep but it makes for a good picture. From this point she has slept with us! Good thing we have a king size bed!

Although it's not good, I managed to sneak a picture of her weighing in today. She has gained 2lbs in 2 weeks. I'm just relieved that she's gaining!

She likes to "sunbathe" and roll in the grass. The vet said she believed that the tail-biting was a nasty habit she probably acquired while in the shelter brought about by stress. She prescribed anxiety medicine! Well, I must say that was a first for me! I'm a little skeptical but we'll give it a try.

This was Thursday night's sunset as it dropped behind a cloud bank.

This was Friday's sunset. The sun had already set and most of the color gone but the sky just had a peaceful calming affect that just beckoned me to take a picture.

It's been a while since I've posted a picture of Lil' Man. He turned 6 months old Thursday. Granddad is whispering in his ear.

Have a good one!

Nineth Year Celebration

My LSS (local scrapbook store) celebrated it's 9th year in business. Actually the store has been around longer than that but my friend and employer has owned the store that many years. She bought it 9 years ago on her birthday so we celebrate both! Usually we have a crop at the store but we are limited on space so it was a first come first serve basis. This year the owners of the park where we hold retreats offered to let us celebrate there with a one night stay. We had more than doubled the attendees we would have had in the store! Our summer employee, Morgan, helped Ray so that Marilyn and I could both go to the retreat. It started Saturday morning and went through Sunday mid afternoon.

I actually did get a little done although I wasn't too sure I would. I had planned all week to get things together to take but I ended up not getting to do that for various reasons and basically threw some things together Saturday morning

I just love this place. It's quiet, peaceful, beautiful and away from almost anything! I've seen this sign many times but it just struck me as funny.

The cottage I stayed in was Farkleberry. I know it makes you laugh but it is actually the name of a Texas plant.

Here is the first 2 page layout I created using paper given to us for a Make & Take. The colors were a bit pale for my liking so I added a bright red cardstock that brought out the hint of red in the design paper from Authentique's "Be(you)tiful collection. As you can see I still need to journal about this event.

These pictures are from 2 years ago when we went to visit our nieces and nephew in the Houston area on Doyle's side of the family. We had not seen them in several years.

Close up of left side.













Close up of right side.











I had another set of pictures from this same trip so with the papers I had left over and some cardstock I created this 2 page layout.

Close up of the left side.

Close up of right side.

I got more layouts done but they aren't finished. I would like to enter these layouts in WOW Wednesday at Cat's Creations. Leave me a comment for a chance to win some blog candy (prize). Cat's gives GREAT prizes! Also check out the other great talent that have linked their projects. Got a project you would like to share. Link up to Cat's blog so we can be inspired!

Our slogan this year for the festivities was "Nine is Fine as Wine" We had wine tasting. I'm not a big wine connoisseur but I did have a taste.

Every time I go to Mitchell Park I make it my goal to take a walk and look for photo opportunities. It's good to stretch my legs and I always see something cool!  As I walk outside the building the moon has risen to the East.

 I see rabbits as I'm walking. The other one is just out of view.

It is also a tradition for me to watch the sunset. Clear open sky with no obstructions in the way! I don't get that opportunity every day. I was not disappointed.

I kind of liked this one with the cows silhouetted.

 Look what else I found!



And don't you love this photo on the right?! It's the sun behind the spider! Way cool!

I had fun taking these photos!

Here's another one!

 Side view

Back to the setting sun. These pictures really don't do it justice. It was so beautiful in person.

 

One last shot. On that note... have a good one!